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If you are an author of a book about dogs/cats, a small business owner with an office pet, an animal groomer, dog walker, pet sitter, or a blogger or writer who focuses on the pet market, your dog/cat can have their own business card… pass these out at networking events, meetings, conferences, book signings and watch people smile. Better yet, they will remember you as the person with the animal business card. (My dog also has her own driver’s license)… marketing and PR is all about being creative and standing out in fun and memorable ways). Woof woof woof !!!

Millions of people say they want to start a business. Some go ahead and do it. Others are all talk and no action. Why? Starting a business after you’ve been an employee all of your life can seem very scary. Fulfilling your dream can be thrilling, exciting and seem death defying. In this economy, many people have felt that they did not have a choice. Start a business or be permanently unemployed.

Below are some tips on how to take a few baby steps and maybe even get your baby business off the ground.

Risk-Averse Entrepreneur’s Guide to Startup Success

7 steps on how to launch a business…

“If you decide to go for it and start a business, be committed to it. If you’re not passionate about what you’re trying to do, you probably won’t stick out the inevitable bumps in the road.”

1000 Ways to Start a Business with $1,000 or Less

(Note: Crucial to building a network of potential and actual customers/clients and getting the word out about your business)

45. Turn your job into a business. If you have a job now, see how you can turn your job skills into a business. If you keep the accounts accurate for your employer, you could start hiring your accounting and financial consulting services to other businesses in the area.

53. Decorate homes for the holidays. Everyone wants to have a pretty home for the holidays – lend a hand and earn some extra money doing it.

54. Decorate yards for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries.

Want the Best Business Card Ever?

Write a Book

Nearly every day, someone asks my advice on the best way to promote their business or themselves. I get the question at speaking engagements, at the office and, yes, sometimes at home. I don’t mind at all, because I’ve always got a good answer:

Write a book.

“A book?” some say — with obvious horror. “I’ve never written a book!”

Precisely my point. But let me back up a bit.

When I started EMSI 22 years ago, I soon realized the clients who got the attention of the media most quickly were those who’d written a book. Not just any book, mind you, but one that aligned with what they were promoting. The apple salesmen who wrote about apples were far more successful getting media coverage than those who wrote about oranges – and those who hadn’t written anything at all.

Why? Because yesterday’s business cards are today’s books. They give their authors immediate credibility, establishing them as experts in their fields. Credibility opens the door to journalists, talk show hosts, bloggers and anyone else creating content for hungry audiences. Who will they turn to as an expert source of information when a mysterious apple worm is destroying orchards? Johnny Appleseed, author of Red All Over – The Core of the Apple Industry.

There are some caveats. A poorly conceived, poorly designed, poorly written or poorly promoted book is worse than no book at all. Your book must capably and professionally represent your unique message – and you.

Not a writer? Not a problem. There are talented freelance writers and editors out there who can help. (Note: contact CeliaSue Hecht to discuss)…

The first step is planning, and that’s up to you whether or not you will actually do the writing.

• Decide on your book’s main idea. The central focus will be what drives the entire project, so it must match the message you want to convey and it must excite you. If you’re bored from the get-go, you’ll likely never see your project through to the end. A great way to test ideas is by running them through these five questions:

1. What message am I enthusiastic about that I want to convey?
2. Who can benefit from it?
3. How will it help them?
4. Why am I the one bringing this idea to them?
5. How can I make my points unique and different from what has already been said on the topic?

• Pay attention to your own reactions as you test-drive your ideas. Which idea makes you smile? Which excites you creatively? Which hits the essence of what you’re about – what you enjoy, think about and create every day? It may be an idea you never even realized inspired such passion in you.

• Consider what you really want to achieve by promoting yourself or your business. Business owners obviously want to grow their business and see it flourish; some people want to build careers as speakers. But often, there’s something deeper driving us and we may not even be aware of it. Taking the time to do some soul-searching to identify your real motivation can help you clarify your message and find your book’s focus.

A real-life example: When I sat down to write Celebritize Yourself, I planned a how-to book on commonly asked publicity questions. But, when I ran that idea through the five-question test, I had trouble with No. 5. So, I asked myself, “What do I most enjoy about my professional life?” The answer was easy: helping people identify and value what’s unique about them and their message. In writing a book about how to get publicity, I realized I needed to explain why everyone has an expertise that should be shared.

It’s never too late to write your book. I know it seems daunting, but remember, the first time you do anything, it’s often a challenge. Remember how hard it was wobbling down the sidewalk on your first bicycle? You may have crashed a few times, skinned your knees and bumped your head, but you got back on and kept trying.

Call on that brave 6-year-old you and start planning your book!

About Marsha Friedman

Marsha Friedman is a 22-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations (www.emsincorporated.com), a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also co-hosts “The News and Experts Radio Show with Alex and Marsha” on Sirius/XM Channel 131 on Saturdays at 5:00 PM EST.

There has been a clash of ideologies called the Mommy Wars between stay at home moms and working women all over the media and social media. ALL women are working, for pay or not is the elephant in the room, oft not stated. Ann Romney has many perks including staff to help with her duties as a stay at home mom. She does not receive a traditional paycheck. But lives a life of privilege most American women and mothers do not. It is disingenious for the Romneys to pretend that she is a typical stay at home mom. She is not.

What is also missing from the conversation in most of the media,liberal and conservative, is a discussion about the economic realities of women, both stay at home moms and working outside the home women. The two articles below give excellent facts, figures and info about how important women’s work is to our economy. And how women’s reproductive freedom factors into the mix. Without a woman being able to determine her own destiny and control her own body, there is NO choice NO freedom. And this impacts everyone.

“Why do women who contribute by producing the whole workforce have to plead for maternity leave that would allow them to recuperate from childbirth, get to know their children and their children to know them, and feed babies the best possible food?

Double standard? Romney wants poor mothers to work outside home, yet his own wife stayed home and never worked outside home (see below). Welfare to work has NOT worked, too much bureaucracy has caused mothers to do whatever it takes to feed their kids including steal and stay with abusers

“The fact that the welfare rolls have risen less than 10 percent since December 2007 while food stamp use has soared by 40 percent—an amazing one in eight Americans now uses them—suggests that welfare isn’t reaching poor families: either women who apply are being turned away, or the programs are so minimal, or so onerous, that people aren’t signing up. How do they manage? Sharon Hays, author of Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform, writes in an e-mail, “They get by in the same way the poor of New Orleans and Haiti are getting by, by cobbling together every available source of aid and support, and then trying to learn how to adjust to constant suffering and insecurity. Increasing rates of domestic violence are just one hidden story here.” And what about women who have reached their state’s time limit—two years, three years, five years—and can’t get welfare for the rest of their lives? Jane Collins, the author, with Victoria Mayer, of Both Hands Tied: Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom of the Low-Wage Labor Market, writes, “In Wisconsin, most people who have used up their time limits are simply out of luck.”

“Let’s pretend that Ann Romney is, like the 143 million other women in the country, not the wife of a multimillionaire Mormon Bishop and talk about her unpaid work as a stay-at-home mom. According to the Wall Street Journal, an average housewife would make $138,095 if she were paid for her labor (that is what she would have to pay someone else). Ann Romney is not your average housewife, but, let’s go with it. Ann Romney’s lost wages for 30 years of providing 24 hour unpaid childcare for her husband, running a household, nursing sick children, being a chauffeur, food shopping, cooking, being executive assistant to six boys and men and other assorted duties is $4,142,850. She also did this, graciously, while struggling with major illness. Ann Romney, like all “non-working” mothers, is not financially compensated for her labor. (She is however, also like other married women who work, taxed for her efforts.)…

“…INCREASED ECONOMIC ACTIVITY. Women’s ability to plan and manage their pregnancies — with or without men — spurs economic growth. This is true all over the world. Countries with high gender equity indices usually have stronger economies because they understand the value of the human capital that women represent. As noted here, “In mature economies, attitudes toward gender equality and the actual possibilities for combining parenthood with gainful employment are decisive. Countries governed by traditional male-dominant attitudes run the risk of long-term economic stagnation.”

“…The majority of men supporting children “by themselves” are in married relationships and have a spouse working to care for the children which adds tens of thousands of unearned income to the household. The majority of women supporting children by themselves are single and have no one contributing unearned income to the household, providing free childcare, and other types of stay-at-home services. However, the women are making only .77 cents to each $1 a man earns. They can’t afford to hire it either. Tell me again who needs to be making more to support their families – the men or the women?”

‎”The United States is one of only four countries in the world that doesn’t ensure new mothers can afford to stay home even for the briefest of times after they have a baby. Not surprisingly, millions of American mothers who’ve given birth go back to work before the six weeks needed just for healing. The majority of new mothers return before 12 weeks.”

“IF Mrs. Romney does move into the White House next January, she will be the only First Lady born in the 20th century to have “never worked a day” in her life, as Rosen perhaps clumsily put it.The last unemployed first lady was Mamie Eisenhower, born in 1896 and married to Ike at 19—the same age Ann was when she married Mitt. That makes Mrs. Romney as dubious an expert on the economic concerns of women as Mamie, an Army wife who moved 28 times, lived in a hotel during World War II, and played canasta and the electric organ.”